Remasters are a big part of the PlayStation lineup these days, a brand strategy that’s courted some controversy in recent years. It’s always nice to see great games of the past come back to the forefront, especially when obtaining original copies is hard, a struggle that’s become common for virtually anything that could be defined as a cult classic. On the toher hand, remasters of recent games can feel a bit more needlessly indulgent, and they don’t add as much excitement to the slate of releases as completely new titles could.
The biggest problem with PlayStation’s newest remaster, however, isn’t how recent it is. Announced at the September 2024 PlayStation State of Play broadcast, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered might not be quite as egregious as The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, with seven years having passed since Horizon Zero Dawn‘s launch on the PS4. Considering how well the original game has held up, there still might not be enough reason to opt for the new one, but one decision from PlayStation is insulting to anyone who might opt for the older release.
Horizon Zero Dawn’s Price On The PS Store Has Increased
A Doubled MSRP Is Nothing To Sneeze At
As noted by MP1st, the price of Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition on the PlayStation Store digital storefront doubled after the reveal of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. While the game had been sitting at an MSRP of $19.99, it jumped to $39.99 in the wake of the announcement, the highest price it’s sported since early 2018 according to PSPrices. The change was clearly made in light of the pricing model for Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, which costs $49.99 as a standalone purchase but only requires a $9.99 upgrade for owners of the original game or the Complete Edition.
The price change was first spotted by
GamePittReviews
, who tweeted screenshots of the before and after prices in the UK on PSPrices.
For anyone who’s invested in a PS5 disc drive, it’s still possible to get the game for much cheaper. Sealed physical copies of Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition can easily be found for around the $20 range, and used copies go even cheaper. Anyone with a digital-only console is straight out of luck, however, which points to a major frustration that comes courtesy of PlayStation’s current approach.
Digital Storefronts Take Away Pricing Options For Games
Steep Sales Are Only Part Of The Picture
Digital storefronts come with plenty of potential issues, but one of the biggest is how directly they can be used to control the value of a game. When physical copies of a title are distributed, there’s no way to artificially maintain a certain MSRP as the only way to buy a game. Physical stores will ultimately mark down a product that isn’t selling at its intended price, and the circulation of used games both lowers the demand for new copies and offers a cheaper alternative for anyone who doesn’t mind a disc that’s been spun before.
Before digital storefronts became prevalent on consoles, Steam stood as the primary large-scale example of the concept, and the steep sales that the platform became known for did a lot of work in popularizing the concept. Plenty of games still get huge price slashes in digital sales, and the platforms come with other benefits like wider access to indie games that can’t afford physical releases.
Over time, however, there’s been a shift toward games maintaining their launch MSRPs for years (or even permanently) on digital platforms, with sales serving as temporary discounts before the games bounce back to $60 or $70 days later. The strategy definitely benefits publishers, but it goes directly against the traditional tendency for new copies of games to fall to around $20 over time. Increased costs involved in modern AAA production help to justify the change, and the fact that discounts do happen makes it somewhat palatable.
PlayStation Leaving Physical Games Behind Is Concerning
It’s Easy To Imagine Where The Future Could Go
In the case of Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition, the decision to bump the price of a game back up in order to make more money on a remaster exemplifies how concerning the direction that digital storefronts are taking can be. It’s hard to say whether the choice will actually benefit PlayStation at the moment, as plenty of PS5 users do have disc drives. Making the digital copy more expensive will turn more potential buyers to the secondhand market, losing out on sales that otherwise could have gone directly to Sony.
Related
How To Refund A Game On PS5
PlayStation 5 players can refund digital purchases from the PlayStation Store. However, there are some restrictions on refund availability.
In the future, however, it’s not hard to see where this tactic is going, at least based on the way the PS5 has been moving away from support for physical games. The original launch introduced Sony’s first digital-only home console, and the Slim turned the disc drive into a separate piece of attachable hardware that requires an Internet activation upon its first setup. There’s no version of the recently announced PS5 Pro that comes with a disc drive at all, demanding an extra $79.99 on top of the $699.99 price of the console.
While the voice of the consumer will always have some say in the matter, an all-digital future would remove alternatives in a situation like Horizon Zero Dawn‘s price increase. It also opens the door wider for the original versions of games to be removed from sale altogether, something that’s already happened to games like Dark Souls on digital storefronts. Without physical alternatives, publishers will ultimately get the final word regarding what games people can buy and how much they have to pay for them.
Increased prices are far from the only potential problem in a future without physical games, and the larger ramifications regarding availability make any concerns about paying more for a game seem trivial. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered indicates just how eager PlayStation may be to control the economy of a digital market, however, and it makes a great argument for why physical games don’t need to go away any time soon.
Sources: MP1st, PSPrices, GamePittReviews
PlayStation 5
The fifth flagship video game console from Sony Computer Entertainment, the PlayStation 5, is a part of the ninth generation of consoles. The console features full backwards compatibility with PlayStation 4 games and features a digital storefront that gives access to older generations. The console can output images at 4K resolution, with alternative options including 1440p at 120 frames per second for gameplay. This console is also known for implementing 3D audio, which allows headphones to be connected to the console for simulated spatially accurate audio.
- Brand
- Sony
- Original Release Date
- November 19, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
- $399.99 (Digital Only), $499.99 (Disc Drive)
